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Little-used? Rashard Lewis still having “time of my life”

Rashard Lewis has made more than $100 million in his career, and played in the NBA Finals.

Now he’s on the fringe of the rotation with the Heat, one of the veterans — with Mike Miller, James Jones and Joel Anthony — who might be playing more elsewhere, but who make Erik Spoelstra’s job easier by never issuing a public complaint.

And he says that he hasn’t been happier in the NBA.

In Milwaukee during the road trip, Lewis bumped into former Magic teammate — and relatively new Buck — J.J. Redick.

“He asked, ‘How you like it down there?'” Lewis said. “I said, ‘Man, I’m having the time of my life. Playing with great teammates, living in Miami, winning ballgames.’ I told him ‘It’s almost like, the year we went to the Finals, you remember how much fun we had in Orlando?’ He was like, yeah, ‘Man, I had so much fun.’ He wants to get back to being on a championship team.”

Lewis believes that, with his knees healthy after lengthy rehab and little regular season usage, he can play “at least another three or four years,” and maybe even get to five, which would get him to his career goal of 20.

Not logging a lot of minutes for the rest of my career will help me retire when I want to retire,” Lewis said. “It will be more my decision than anything.”

But could he have handled this role earlier in his career.

“Ten years ago, not at all,” Lewis said. “I was a young kid trying to establish myself as an NBA player. I had a lot of energy, wanted to be out there playing. Even with this year, it gets frustrating at times, but at the end of the day, I’m excited, we’re winning ballgames, I’m playing with Hall of Famers, and not only that, I get a chance to win a championship. I always think about where I was last year, and that humbles me within a split second. I always try to be upbeat and have a positive attitude around the guys, because this is a great locker room, there’s no cancers on the team, and we have just as much fun off the court as on the court. And not only that, but we’re living in one of the best cities in the world, where the weather is great year-round. A first-class organization. You can’t beat this.”

He continued:

“When you’re a veteran player, you’re thankful for things like this. When you’re a younger player, you don’t know no better. You’ll be more selfish than anything. Now when you’re veterans, you’re more about the team, about each other. I will definitely remember Orlando, first time I got to the Finals. But this will go down in history for me.”